Beautiful Abbey Turns 30

One of the most fun nights I've had in a while came right before a string of amazing experiences so I kinda think my dear friend, Abbey, somehow rubbed good luck off on me. Right before I went out to Denver (a day before, in fact!), I was so thrilled to celebrate sweet Abbey's 30th birthday and man, did we have an absolute blast. Her parents decided to rent out Corsino for an evening and it was such a perfect celebration.

Over the years, I've gotten to meet a great deal of Abbey's family and friends so the night was as fun for me as it was her. I hadn't yet met her adorable niece, Harper, though and that was a huge highlight of the night for me. I fell in love with her: 

We drank fantastic wine, ate delicious food and ended up dancing into the wee hours of the night at a bar later on. The best part? Allison and I hired Colleen again to photograph everything and it truly was so special. Taken from Colleen's website:

Abbey is one of my first true New York friends and I am so deeply blessed by her. She has been such a bright spot in my life over the years and I cherish who she is as a woman and friend. Celebrating a milestone such as her 30th birthday is a memory I won't soon forget and I'm honored to walk the path of life together as the years continue to pass. Lots of love to you, sweet friend!

Sunset Cruises Are Fun

I really feel fortunate to have experienced some awesome things this summer but a huge highlight was celebrating Seafood's 30th in major style aboard a yacht at sunset, cruising around Manhattan until midnight. I've never done anything like that in the city before and it was absolutely tremendous.

Not only is Seafood (as we affectionately refer to him) the most generous person I know, he's also the best when it comes to celebrations. He knows how to have fun, that's for sure. It was so hard coming up with what to get him for his birthday until a lightbulb went off: Colleen! A group of us decided to pool funds together and hire Colleen to photograph the entire evening. It's honestly the best decision we could've made. Not only was Seafood ecstatic about the surprise but he told us several times how happy he was to have that memory documented.

We had gorgeous weather for the evening and I truly feel lucky to have spent such a special night with Seafood's good friends and family. I must share some of Colleen's beautiful photos as they capture much more than I can:

What a terrific, fun and memorable evening. I honestly love my life sometimes and the people in it are irreplaceable. I'm a very lucky lady.

Brigantine Or Bust

It's shameful that I'm working on posts at the end of October that happened in July and August. I've honestly had no spare time to breathe lately and it makes me sad. Even down time at work has been filled up with random, odd projects so here I am finally trying to make a dent in a few things I've been up to recently.

Summer in the city was fabulous as usual. Rooftop parties, patio cocktails, live music, weekend getaways, evening strolls in the park...you name it, I did it. I absolutely love summer here. I didn't get out of town this year as much as I usually do so, being that I was itching to get away, I decided a summer Brigantine trip simply had to happen. I decided to ask Rachel, Allison and Suzanne if they'd be up to going and I got a collectively resounding 'yes'!

Brigantine, NJ holds such a special place in my heart due to my time there with Erica. Visiting her family and where she grew up was something we'd look forward to over the years and, while it's so odd going without her, I love that it's such a close town to the city. Located just a couple of hours away from NYC (and less than ten minutes from Atlantic City), Brig is your quintessential beach town. It's a super small island, there are only a couple of bars and restaurants around and it's as casual as you can get. I love bumming around in flops and t-shirts no matter where you go and it's honestly a place you want to go for true relaxing.

On the absolute hottest day of the year, the four of us gals hopped in the car on our way only to run into two hours of standstill traffic sitting outside the tunnel. Yeah, that wasn't fun. We weren't letting anything get us down though so eventually we were on our way, lunchables and all:

 Yeah, very very hot:

We finally got to Brig around 8:00pm and, naturally, we went straight to the beach bar:

We spent the most awesome two days just sitting in the sun, eating cheesesteaks (an absolute must in Brig), talking, laughing, relaxing...simply enjoying each others' company and loving being out of the city:

 This one's for you, Erica:

Yesssssss:

Best night, ever (pay no attention to my hair):

I adore these women and time spent with them is both hilarious and meaningful. I can't even say how happy I am that we had this little getaway together. Hooray, summer!